Paris

When Zola wrote this novel, he was some 16 years into his project of writing _Les Rougon-Macquart_, an enormous, beautifully written series describing French society. It's comparable to Balzac's _La Comédie Humaine_ (which you should also read). This particular novel received a lot of flak from Zola's contemporaries when he published it in 1876, because he dared to portray lower-class French society in all its gritty, realistic detail.

"I don't apologise," Zola replied in his preface. "It's morality in action." He had set out to describe the wide-reaching history of the Rougon-Macquart family, which speaks so well to French society's problems at that time (and as one reviewer said, rest assured it holds true now). In this case, a particular problem was passed down, in Jungian fashion, alcohol abuse. This memory resurfaces not just in _Nana_, but in _La Bête humaine_ which shows how someone in a more respectable position in society still wrestles with this inherited demon.

One of Zola's great achievements here was to reproduce the language of Gervaise, Coupeau, and their milieu, for the purposes of realism. This is exactly what got him into trouble -- besides portraying the loose morals of so many downtrodden characters. I can hardly imagine how a translator could do him justice -- by having everyone speak as Southern American rednecks? by transposing the slang into cockney? That may work for our personal versions of the story as we hit the "club" (which is pretty-much what the title, l'Assommoir, literally means) to see folks knock their workaday troubles into oblivion. (Absinthe is now illegal because it is dangerously addictive, but pastis is a tasty substitute.) But I am truly sorry for those of you who must buy this in English, unless the dissapointment of reading it convinces you to learn French. You'll never regret the years it takes to get to the level at which you'll enjoy this, and you'll get to read great books like this along the way.

One need go no further than the title of the book, dervied from the French verb "assommer"- to beat down, to understand that this will be a brutally and painfully realistic work. Zola is true to this expectation. Emile Zola had a thunderous impact on both nineteenth century French literature and political culture. Not only did he decry blatant injustice through his works, but to a large extent, he sacrificed his livelihood in espousing the cause of Captain Dreyfus through his tract "J'accuse!". Zola's sincere moral beliefs will surprise no one who has read his works. The passion with which the novels that comprise the Rougon series are written is a rarity. Having read five or six of these novels, I find that the charcter of Gervaise in L'Assomoir is both the most real and the most endearing. As opposed to Nana who is often perceived by readers as cold and merciless, Gervaise is a simple, hard-working woman who suffers a tourmented life. Zola's classic naturalist descriptions of the bars and the consumption of absinthe are priceless. In fact, Gervaise's suffering almost (but not quite)enables us to justify the actions of her daughter Nana in the subsequent book of the series. For anyone who is interested in sampling Zola's mastery and sincere passion, this book is a must read.

There are few novels as bleak and unrelenting as this one, at least in my reading experience. Over 500 pages, you witness the aspirations and grotesque decline of a working-class family into alcoholism, promiscuity, and violence. It is so awful, the blows so continual and harsh, that only the most committed of readers will be able to get through it. But for those that do, I believe there are great rewards.

On many levels, this book broke new ground. First, it is a clinical dissection of the progression of alcoholism, based on direct observation by Zola and scientific research, describing not only its symptoms in gory detail, but its impact on a family. Second, it was one of the first attempts to portray the working class realistically, rather than as a sterotype of inferior crudity or romanticised as noble savages. THis spawned an entire genre of socially relevant novels and is a great contribution. Third, it introduced an entirely new vocabulary into French art, that is, the gutter argot that the Academie Francaise condemned as unsuitable. Taken together, these are remarkable acheivements.

While I hesitate to reveal the plot, I assume that most readers will know it in outline. It involves a good person - a hard-working laundress with dreams of running her own shop - who marries a neighbor a few weeks after her lover leaves her with two children in Paris. For many years, things go well: they love eachother, work very hard and save money, and live cleanly. THen, after a terrible accident, the husband begins to drink, which initiates a downward spiral that is so painful to follow: his work suffers, then his marriage, and finally his health. The laundress, who is so sympathetic and full of hopes, is simply crushed under the burden of supporting everyone financially and emotionally. SHe wants to do what is right and fails utterly, helpless to halt the destruction she is witnessing. In addition, her many enemies, such as her spiteful in-laws and neighborhood gossips, add cruel twists to her decline.

The heroine's misery and debasement are monuments to naturalist realism, through which Zola aspired to show things as they really are: there is none of the growth and romantic redemption that one expects in Anglo-saxon novels from the same period of the late 19C. On a broader longitudinal scheme, the novel also shows the backgrounds of two of Zola's most important characters, the half-siblings Nana and Etienne, who are the central characters in two truly great novels that follow (Nana and Germinal). FInally, it adds a crucial dimension to the portrait of 2nd-Empire France, that of the working class.

Recommended as a truly historic novel. However, the reader is warned that there is little pleasure in store.

There are few books that one reads that stay with you for a lifetime---this is such a book. And, its timeliness couldn't be more appropriate given the current world condition. Not only does Voices in the Dark give a startling inside view to Nazi-occupied France but it also contains meeting notes held by George Gurdjieff with his students during that time. I had never read these notes anywhere before---what a gift Mr. Patterson has given us by unearthing these notes and bringing them to light for all to read.

For me, this book is masterful and one of its powers lies in its architecture. Mr. Patterson interweaved the events of the period with the transcripts of Mr. Gurdjieff's meetings. This had the effect of evoking a palpable taste of the outer war and metaphorically, at a deeper level, the inner struggle as well. In reading the meetings it was as if time had stopped'or better yet, it was like entering a world out of time, bathed in Reason and Conscience. That the contents of the meetings lacked talk of concern for one's safety, or a discussion of the day's outer events, or the lack of food, etc, really shot deep with me. It showed what can be possible---a level of seriousness in the search for true Being even amidst the horrific circumstances of the times.

In the book, the quote below of Mr. Gurdjieff continues to resonate the living Wisdom he brought:

'I not interested in who wins war. Not have patriotism or big ideals about peace. Americans, with ideals, kill millions of Germans, Germans kill---with own ideals---English, French, Russian, Belgian---all have ideals, all have peaceful purpose, all kill.'

Voices in the Dark gives a historical perspective on the Gurdjieff work, placing authentic transcripts of meetings with his students in the context of the extremely difficult and traumatic experience of living in Nazi-occupied Paris. Patterson adds additional dimensions to this time through the reactions, feelings, and thoughts of some of the most important writers, philosophers, and power-players of the day. This book gives excellent insights into a situation in which the search for meaning was not just important, but urgent and critical. The bravery and the commitment to their aim that Gurdjieff and his students showed in the face of constant danger and uncertainty is inspiring and Patterson's presentation of their story honors them.

Have we ever asked ourselves a question about the nature of that ever present voice, or, rather, voices that always crowd our heads with inner talking, imagining, commenting, judging, worrying, and making decisions? By habit we call them thinking and consider them to be our normal and inseparable part. Actually, we say "I" to all of them, believing that it is us who think, comment, judge, and make decisions. But is it really so?
Patterson's Voices in the Dark is a good overall analysis of how these voices played themselves out on a large historical scale through the lives of some key figures of World War II. Unlike any other book on war Voices in the Dark provides the reader with something that is so easily missed, so quickly discounted as of being boring, empty, dead, and not worth of attention. In the form of transcripts of 32 very unusual Paris meetings with the seminal spiritual figure, G.I. Gurdjieff, the reader is given a doorway to the true mystery of life, to the dark space behind the scenes, to the background in which these voices appear and disappear.
One may ask himself: what was so unique about meetings with this man? Why his students-who weren't driven by the chaotic times of war, patriotism or the desire for self-preservation at any cost-were willing to take the risks of getting through Nazi posts, breaking curfews and meeting with Gurdjieff, when at the slightest suspicion one would be killed on the spot without any investigation?
Through these meeting transcripts, taken by G's personal secretary Solita Solano, the reader feels what it was that these people valued higher than their own lives. And, one can hear a different, impersonal voice of the man who lived in life and yet was free from it, who was full of compassion and understanding of the world's imminent self-destruction and the urgent need of genuine salvation.

This book, Hemingway's Paris & Pamplona - Then and Now, is an exciting and nostalgic read. It's fun. Robert Burgess weaves an interesting history of Hemingway's personal and literary experiences in France and Spain using The Sun Also Rises as a basis, while also exploring and portraying these places today. The reader gets the trip for the price of the book. Inside, Burgess' own recollections of Hemingway, historical facts, literary references, friends' statements, and his detailed investigation of the sites reveal the world that Papa and his characters knew. From the Pyrenees to Pamplona to Paris, the author captures the essence of Hemingway's turf, accurately describing it then and now. The specifics are splendid, as real and imaginary people are brought to life. For Mr. Burgess, researching and compiling this book must have been a memorable trip back in time, as he re-explored places from his own past. The enthusiasm shows. For anyone interested in Hemingway, Spain, Paris, or Mr. Burgess' extrordinary travels, I could have reviewed this book in two words: BUY IT.....
By Jimmy Hall/ Georgia

This book is an outstanding way to get acquainted with Hemingway's works and life. I have never read any of his books (I have seen several of the movie versions though)and know very little about Hemingway's life, so when it was recommended by a friend, I thought it might be like coming in on a football game at halftime. However, it turned out to be a very readable, enjoyable and accessible look into this great American writer's years in France and Spain and the friends and acquaintances that influenced his life and his writing. The author did an outstanding job of showing the real life connections between his life there and the characters and places he used in his first novel "The Sun Also Rises". In reading it I was able to see in my minds eye the street cafés of Paris and feel the excitement of the famous running of the bulls in the streets of Pamplona. I especially enjoyed the author's return visit to those places to see them as they are today. His descriptions of the changes that have occurred in the intervening years are what brought this book together nicely. I think now I'll go read "The Sun Also Rises" and see how Hemingway saw it all.

Mr Burgess really did some extensive research, he brings the charactors that inspired 'The Sun Also Rises' to life as no one has done before. I was entertained and informed from beginning to end, the book answered a lot of questions I have long had about how much was fact and how much was fiction in the writing of SAR. The best book I have read on Hemingway in a long time..

S Alfred Baker
Hemingway in Michigan Research Center

THE FORTUNE CATCHER is a love story set during the Iranian revolution, with all the requisite elements -- romance, danger, separation, suspense, some really vicious villains, some wonderful good guys -- in other words, a real page-turner. But the best part is author Susanne Pari's handling of the cultural material -- the holidays and customs, religious conflicts, history, politics, and the place of women within each culture. A "fire-jumping" celebration at a traditional Persian New Year's party in the opening scene becomes a metaphor for all that the Iranian/American heroine, Layla, must endure as this nerve-rattling story unfolds. Pari compares and contrasts Muslim, American, Farsi, and Israeli characters of every stripe, revealing their complex backgrounds and motivations with an incredibly deft hand and clear eye. The novel is beautifully balanced, deeply informative, and so vivid, you can see the varying landscapes, smell the air, and taste the food. If you love books that pay attention to cuisine, you'll find THE FORTUNE CATCHER an especially delicious read. Page-turner that it is, I found myself frequently pausing to re-read a particularly sensuous description. This book is one to savor!

I loved reading this book! It's intelligent, action-packed, and enlarged my horizons. I learned so much about what life is really like for women living in the Middle East from this book. A great and suspenseful love story, which kept me on the edge of my seat. Edgework Books released a new edition in 2002, so it is easily available for readers. I recommend this book for anyone who likes to read intelligent fiction set in exotic lands.

Although this book is technically fiction, it has many factual elements within it. Not only is it a fast paced love story, drama/thriller filled book that keeps the reader's attention, but it also incorporates integral facts about the Iranian culture as a whole while giving it's reader's cultural understanding through it's well thought out characters. I am an avid reader this is a good one!

Christopher Newman, a wealthy, good-natured Western magnate, has retired to Europe in order to better himself. There he is introduced to Claire de Cintré as a representative of his ideal woman. He does prize her, and determines to marry her, though the nobility of her family, the Bellegardes, seems to preclude such a bond. His friendship with her brother and easy democratic feeling make Newman regard himself as "noble" as they, though of course he isn't. It's quite a subtle and clever tale; it's not quite a doomed romance, for there's little indication that Newman and Claire really love each other. She finds him novel and he finds her ideal, but would they make a happy couple? And as the book is told mostly from the viewpoint of Newman, it requires reading between the lines to see just what a bumbler the tall, rich, confident American is when it comes to European social traditions. Finally, there is deep suspense when Newman has the chance to damage the Bellegardes' reputation. James draws the question out masterfully, and provides a very correct, if bittersweet, ending. It's a fine novel of manners, written in skillful, deft prose.

James can be a long read. But keep in mind the time period in which he is writing and you will easily tackle this novel. This book should be on y our "Must Read List". Every American should be reading about Christopher Newman.

Its easily understandable today as it was over 100 years ago. We often forget our place in the world and fail to see ourselves from the point of view of others.

This is the story of an expatriate in a time when America was boldly going forth into a old world, filled with old customs and well worn traditions.

Well worth the read.

I have this friend who hates Henry James. I can't understand it. The style is dated, in that people dont write that way today, but as you get into the book you begin to enjoy the style, as well as the plot, characters, and French/American dual culture shock that still goes on today. (For an update on the theme, look at Le Divorce and Le Mariage by Diane Johnson). I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen to these characters and the description of Paris in the Second Empire were fascinating. If you watch the Masterpiece Theatre version without having read the book, you will be totally confused. They moved events out of sequence all over the place and after about ten minutes I shut off the tape and picked up the book. You have to know the whole story before you watch them throw characters and events at you in the first two scenes that only appear 2/3 of the way through the novel, after a foundation has been laid as to who they are and when and why things happened.

I couldnt recommend this more for a good read. The only caution I have is for readers who have never been to France. They may get an extremely negative impression of French people from many of the characters in this book. Go to Paris and you will find the city is wonderful, and so are the French people. These characters are not typical!! They belong to a certain class, and the book does take place 150 years ago. If this book doesnt get you hooked on James, I dont know what will. Try Washington Square and dont miss that movie, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney and Maggie Smith.

A delightful, informative book especially for women, but for anyone. You can tell that Lynn has a deep love for Paris and traveling. The packing tips are great!!! Can't wait for the New York book.

After having traveled to Paris with this book, I must upgrade my original review of 3.5 stars. While I still find some of the suggestions a bit pricey, as a basic travel guide to Paris, this is a grand little book. It went everywhere with us, accompanied by just one other book, Lonely Planet's Condensed Guide to Paris, which has great maps. Along with excellent preplanning and packing advice, Going Like Lynn: Paris provides information on the best sites for you to pick and chose from (we're not big shoppers, so we didn't go to the recommended stores). Definitely a keeper put back for our next trip, unless Lynn does an updated edition (hint)!

I found this book a great companion during my second trip to Paris. Lynn has a great way of helping you tour an area so that you feel like one of the locals. I totally disagree with the first customer reviewers comments. I rode the Metro everyway in Paris, lodged at one of Lynn's suggested hotels, and ate at all of her suggested restaurants. I found it quite an economical way to travel!

Her tips about planning ahead are invaluable. I was able to enjoy several museums, sight see, shop, and eat well during a four day stay.

I highly recommend this book as a MUST companion to one of the larger tour books of Paris. You can carry it around in your pocket or fanny pack to reference when you're out and about. Besides Lynn sends you to off the beaten path places where you are treated with kindness and hospitality; and where exceptions are always made! Frommers can't offer that!

In the mid-1990s, Australian journalist Sarah Turnbull met a French attorney named Frédéric in Bucharest and followed him back to Paris, where they lived together and eventually married. End of a familiar story, right? Wrong. Turnbull, a born reporter, has given her book an apt subtitle: not "Life and a New Love in Paris," but "Love and a New Life in Paris." For, as Turnbull accurately observes, in her case it's the love that brings her to a new life and not vice versa.

Turnbull provides brief glimpses into how love grew between her and "Fred," including descriptions of a huge mirror from which he patiently scraped paint with his thumbnail; for the most part he remains an opaque figure. There is no doubt whatsoever that this idiosyncratic pair are in genuine swing-from-the-gilt mirror love --- after all, she does move to another country for him and he makes enormous and touching attempts to introduce her to his family and his culture --- but Turnbull seems to have made a conscious decision to draw a veil over their love life, both emotional and physical. Her intention is not to describe a romance but to detail her own transformations --- from single woman to spouse, and from Aussie to "almost French."

The "almost" modifying "French" includes a large amount of agonizing awkwardness. The near-universal tourist experience of Parisian rudeness is magnified hundreds of times for someone like Turnbull who chooses to stay on past the usual week or two. "A week might not be long enough," muses the author after her first dinner in Fred's apartment, but she still maintains enough natural savoir-faire to take a breather and travel for several months. After that however, "I return to Paris. The way I see it, there is really no alternative ... if I don't go to France, I might regret it forever."

What makes Turnbull's recounting of her Parisian existence eminently readable is that there is so much she might regret by actually staying. She freely admits that when she returned to Paris and Fred's apartment, she had no friends or family, little language ability, and few job prospects. Her initial setbacks (stacks of rejection letters from editors, dinner party embarrassments, and difficulty in communicating with her new love) lead Turnbull to feeling "confused, guilty even, that I should feel unhappy in a place that looks like paradise."

Being unhappy away from familiar things is an age-old theme for females who follow their hearts to new lands --- but while the theme is ancient, Turnbull isn't. She is a thoroughly modern woman whose frustrations spur her on to find solutions. Before long she has entered a prestigious journalism program, encouraged Fred to buy a new apartment in the Montorgueil district, and actually learned to tolerate the suffocatingly hidebound atmosphere of Fred's provincial family seat at Baincthun.

Unlike Adam Gopnik's PARIS TO THE MOON, in which author, wife and child are all expatriates who will return home at some point (however reluctantly), ALMOST FRENCH is a book that clearly presages a sequel (perhaps WHOLLY FRENCH) --- or does it? One of the freshest things about Turnbull's great adventure is that, while she wholeheartedly throws herself into loving and living in a different country, she never abandons the self she created for the nearly thirty years before coming to France.

In the last chapter, after their marriage, Turnbull reflects on the adventure that is just beginning. While it is clear that Sarah and Fred have many adventures to come, it is equally clear that she may never be completely French. Vive la différence!

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick from Bookreporter.com

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have developed an interest in things French and found that this book answered a few of my questions.

Turnbull moves to Paris from Sydney to live with a man she hardly knows. The book chronicles her odyssey from naive foreigner to a more self-assured woman living in Paris. She will never be French but she has learned to navigate the obstacles in her way. Some things she addresses:

- Womens role in society. While expected to be intellegent, she is also expected to be low-key and slightly demure in public.

- Cocktail parties. She attends one where no one really mingles. She learns the French are really rather shy when meeting new people.

- Dress. The French value quality over quantity.

- Dealing with French officials. Turnbull relays a few harrowing stories while trying to process papers for work and learns a few ways of dealing with government workers.

One thing - Turnbull is Australian so her treatment from the French is probably not as bad if she were American.

Very interesting read.

This book was capitavating from the very beginning. Living in London with my British hubby, I had tears in my eyes frequently when I read the various passages about dinner parties, etc. I went through many of the same situations as the author did, without the language barrier, sort of, and still was reduced to tears at functions. Luckily, my husband is as supportive as Ms. Turnbull's is. But this book is the best. I am so envious that in Paris you can actually meet people when you walk your dog. My experiences in London, with our ruby cavalier king charles spaniel, have not been all that warm. People I meet are more concerned that I have a bag to pick up the poop than they are interested in my dog, which is the most popular small breed in the UK! Now, when we go to the country, things change dramatically! This book is a charmer and I picked up some new French phrases I had never known before.

Maira Kalman is wonderful. I totally fell in love with this book. I shared it with the first graders that I tutor and they adored the zany illustrations and blushed when Max fell for the lovely Crepes Suzette. It was also a great way to introduce a little french culture. They were totally facinated and asked me to find more Max books. Please don't pass this one by because some of the vocab may be difficult for kids to understand. The illustrations are the most amazing that I've ever seen. Both kids and adults alike will be enthralled.

Max is in Paris, the city of light and romance, to see the sights and maybe, just maybe find his heart's delight. "...Who is Max??? Mon dieu! Sacre Bleu! He is the coolest cat, I mean the hottest dog. He is Max Stravinsky. The dog poet from New York. That Bohemian beagle..." He stays at the little hotel run by the "aromatic" Madame Camembert, and tours the city, visiting the Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, the parks, boulevards and cafes. He eats, he drinks, and takes French lessons from Charlotte Russe. And he walks and walks, meeting a quirky cast of original characters, always looking for love..."It was April after all." He's invited out to the Crazy Wolf Nightclub by owner Pierre Potpourri, to hear the incomparable pianist, Crepes Suzette, and it is there he finds his "raison d'etre", the dog he's been looking for his entire life..... Maira Kalman has authored an ingeniously inventive and entertaining picture book classic, starring the ever-endearing Max, that truly stands alone in a class by itself. Her witty and creative text, part French, part English, begs to be read aloud, and is full of clever rhymes, wordplay and puns, and complemented by her intricately detailed and expressive artwork. Children and adults alike will enjoy poring over the pages, always finding something new and intriguing everytime they open the book. Ooh-La-La (Max In Love) is a masterpiece that will be enjoyed by "children" of all ages, from 5 to 95, and a book to be treasured and shared with friends and family now, and in the many years to come. This is Maira Kalman at her very best. Make sure you get your copy now!

Max, starry-eyed romantic poet, goes to Paris where everything is absurd and wonderful. This book is like Salvador Dali on mushrooms. Self-confident, smart, and just plain strange, this book is suitable for everyone with a twist. It even made me laugh. ha.

This is not a bad read but, for me, to finish it meant reading the first line of many paragraphs and then skipping to the next -- something, as a rather slow reader, I rarely do.

Some of the writing is embarrassing (like listening to a bad singer) -- 'By the way,...' one sentence begins and then ends as a random author's thought. Phrases like 'it was not her thing' or Yiddishisms that seem anachronistic. 'Enthuse' as a verb used over and over again is annoying.

Finally, there is an overview lacking. Perhaps this is my own prejudice but I found the presentation of this tremendously self-absorbed, ungenerous woman's life lacking in a critical perspective. She lived through 2 world wars in complete luxury and comfort and never seems to have extended herself (except, as the author points out to particular individuals and friends) to those who were suffering. A single, rich and privileged woman with a continual staff of servants who never extended herself beyond her dilletantish borders deserves a little more critique than this polite biography offers.

First half was quite interesting in terms of the cultural milieu and historical bios presented. Second half reads as if it were written in a rush.

My wife has been a Natalie Barney fan for years, and when she began reading Wild Heart she simply disappeared from my life for a few days. She couldn't put that book down. When she finally allowed me to read it, I understood why. Barney's life was fascinating in and of itself, but I also liked the historical backdrop. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Belle Époque and what it was like to be in Paris during World War I. The discussion about Barney's inexplicable anti-semitism was honest. According to my wife, other writers have kept that part of Barney hidden. In our home this book has received a solid two thumbs up.

Suzanne Rodriguez brings 1920s Pairs to life in the pages of Wild Heart; A Life. If you like biographies, European history, Paris, or are Natalie Barney fan, this is the book for you. To be honest, even if you have never heard of Natalie Barney, it's still a great read. As a writer, I found the accounts of Ms. Barney's famous "Fridays" (her Paris salon) very intriguing. Oh, what a treat it would be to go back in time and attend just one!! Ms. Rodriguez makes you feel like you are there, with vivid descriptions about the interpersonal interactions of some of the more famous (and infamous) Friday attendees.

Ms. Rodriguez is a first-rate biographer, as she lets her subject's life gracefully unfold, rather than pushing it on the reader. She also interjects interesting historical tid-bits and she has a way of subtly adding her own personality to the tome.

Buy it, curl up and escape! It's a great read.

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries is based on the author's journeys through childhood and her early adult life. It is a compelling story of life, love and loneliness. The novel is basically about the relationship the main character Charlotte-Anne (also known as Channe) had with her father and how it changed throughout her childhood and maturity. Channe is very close to her father throughout her early childhood. As she becomes a teenager they begin to drift apart. But after an unfortunate turn of events the bond is tightened between them.
From the first chapter the reader is put inside the mind of five-year-old child to see the world through her eyes and to experience things the way she experienced them. The reader gets pulled into the book from the very beginning through the author's use of vivid description and specific details when Charlotte-Anne's parents adopt a five-year-old son. Charlotte-Anne has to learn to cope with not being the only child. Channe has a very temperamental personality; one moment she loves him the next she can't stop being mad at him. The book also follows her relationship with her brother and how they learn to love and respect each other no matter how impossible it seems. From her brother's adoption to their move from France to America Charlotte-Anne tries her best to love life and live it the best she knows how.
I really enjoyed reading this book because it is written from the perspective of a child and the book illustrates beautifully the confusion that children go through.

The book "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" is about a young girl, Channe, living in France and how she must endure the many life altering events that occur making a significant impact on her life. Channe as a young child is very resentful and curious of the world around her. As Channe matures her actions become seemingly irrational and reflect on the outcome of her adulthood.
I found that after reading this book it gave me a different perspective on many things and how one should handle themselves. It lead me to ask questions and at some points baffled me to read what Channe had done before the age of sixteen. I was also quit intrigued with how the parents handled Channe's behavior in such a stand offish and unique manner.
I really enjoyed the ascription of honesty expressed in the book in how a girl of Channe's stature would express and define herself. I thought that this book was a very good read and kept me interested at all times. I also felt that the book was very well written making it easy to absorb.

This new Akashic edition adds a whole new layer to this wonderful novel. The introduction alludes to the making of the Merchant-Ivory film, and the author's experiences on the set. Also, she delves into the differences between memoir and fiction writing, and why this novel so clearly is a novel and not a memoir. The new chapter, "Mother's Day," which stands alone as a short story -- as all of these chapter do and were surely meant to -- describes the narrator Channe's troubled and deeply ambivalent relationship with her mother. I always felt the mother was a little absent from this novel. Now she's not! Bravo to Akashic for reprinting this American classic.